Free Astronomy Magazine March-April 2019

43 MARCH-APRIL 2019 cific applications, they are able to perform tasks that were once possible only with much more cumbersome satellites. StartRocket plans to launch an entire fleet into low Earth orbit, between 400 and 500 km high, where the International Space Station also operates. Once the goal is reached, the cubesats will be placed in a predetermined formation, about 100 me- ters apart from one another, and each of them will open a mylar sail with a surface not exceeding 10 square meters, whose task is to reflect sunlight towards the Earth’s surface. The sails will cover a total area of about 50 square kilometers and, as if they were moving pixels, can be shifted to compose, from time to time, the names or logos of products and compa- nies that might have the bad taste of being accomplices of the contamination of the last inviolate environment. StartRocket proudly states that this proj- ect, called “Orbital Displays,” will open the way for new forms of media. The company also “reassures us” by stating that each display will not be brighter than